Imagine if you are a turtle swimming around in the vast blue ocean and see a giant piece of food. So you swim right up to it and start eating it. Once you have eaten a few pieces you notice something is tremendously wrong. All of the sudden you feel blockage in your throat and realize that this is not actually your food. It is a plastic bag leaving you in complete distress. Our world is being affected dramatically by this massive littering issue. Humans in some areas of the world will look out their window and see a whole bunch of garbage all around their street and that is not a pleasant sight. The first act of littering started around the 1950’s and hasn’t stopped since. Littering is horrible for the environment because it is affecting the food supply, animals are getting hurt, and it’s making the environment dirty.
To begin with, our environment is getting negatively affected by littering.“Fish are ingesting more plastic pollution. More research is needed on the human health impacts, however, the perceived threat of plastic infested seafood could harm fisheries” (National Caucus of Environmental Legislators). This proves that our bad decisions are affecting our food supply. As a result, if the fish are polluted, fishers can’t get a profit out of the fish. If us humans do not stop littering, the fish population will drastically decrease.
Secondly, animals in the ocean are negatively getting affected by the dirty waters.“Litter, especially plastics, can be ingested by animals and become caught in their stomachs. When their stomachs are blocked, the animals may feel full or be in pain and unable to eat their normal food. The malnourished animals are more likely to become sick, become prey or have reproductive issues” (Litter Hurts Wildlife). This illustrates that from our bad decisions the animals in our environment are struggling because they are confusing trash with their food. For this reason, most animals are losing their lives. We can make a difference just if we take an extra step to throw out our trash in the proper area.
Lastly, another effect of littering is how it makes our environment filthy. “Litter can serve as a breeding ground for bacteria and can spread disease through direct or indirect contact with humans. Mismanaged trash may also attract pests or cause fires. Aquatic trash can also have negative impacts on recreation, tourism, and the economy” (United States Environmental Protection Agency). This demonstrates that littering can cause bacteria to spread throughout the grounds and diseases that may come into contact with us humans. Additionally, the garbage that is on our earth may lead to fires spreading. As a result many humans are getting sick of diseases from littering.
Ways we can keep our environment healthy and clean is by having town officials purchase more trash cans for each of their towns. With more trash cans being bought, they can be placed in close proximity to each other so humans can dispose of their garbage instead of littering. Places like parks, outside restaurants , and public walkways are all beneficial places. By the trash cans being placed in more locations it will heavily reduce the amount of litter found on the ground. So us humans need to take action in our communities to save our environment because the amount of littering found just keeps increasing.
